Ref. 71867-12THERE wasn't much room for anything else in the field in Hodson where Anne Eddy found these giant puffballs.

The 67-year-old was amazed to find them as she took her dog for an early morning stroll in Hodson on Saturday.

Anne, who has lived in the village for 18 years, says she has never seen anything like them before.

"Maybe it's something to do with the strange weather we've been having," she said.

"They really are quite unusual and caught my eye immediately.

"At first I thought it was a football lying in the grass but then, as I got closer, I realised it was actually a gigantic mushroom."

Anne estimates that one of the giant fungi is about a foot wide while the other is eight inches in diameter.

She spent hours looking through books trying to determine what the fungi were and has come to the conclusion they are giant puffballs, but she had thought they were huge field mushrooms.

Anne said: "I used to go mushrooming as a kid but have never seen anything like this before. I'm not a fungi expert at all, but just thought these were amazing."

Anne found the puffballs near a path in a field between Hodson and Chiseldon.

Neil Pullen, the Swindon wildlife officer for the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, confirmed that the fungi were giant puffballs. He said they tend to grow in the same place from year to year and their growth is not usually affected by extreme weather.

"They can grow in rings and I've seen them growing in huge groups," he said.

"This year, for example, I found a huge group of them in the Cotswolds, near Sapperton.

"Quite often they are overlooked because they can look like huge stones in fields. As a child I used to find giant puffballs along the River Ray.

"I have seen them in and around Swindon before but not as large as these.

"The puffballs you have here are probably a little past their best.

They tend to go brown and crinkle up and release their spores when they go over.

"When they are fresh they are safe to eat and should be white all the way through.

"Wash them thoroughly and cut them about a quarter of an inch thick and then fry them in butter."

Mr Pullen added that although giant puffballs are quite common, he does not encourage people to pick vast quantities of them.

Emma-Kate Lidbury